Saturday, January 26, 2013

Today we are enjoying a lazy Saturday at home, nurturing a sick little boy. I think he/we have gotten some sort of illness every other week or so for the past couple months- I'm afraid this is what Mother's Day Out will do to a family.

We've been baking cookies and eating them all. We've been packing up, cleaning up, and generally just de-hoarding. We've had grandparent visitors, and longer hours with Matth's job. I've been cooking lots of cold weather dinners, and I'm all out of ideas for food.

Eli likes helping me cook or decorate cookies for all of about five minutes, and then he'd rather find something to crash or a daddy to wrestle. We've tried a few painting and art projects, but frankly, he's just not that interested. I wanted to attempt a Valentine's craft the other day, but he just wanted to watch me paint one snake after the other. Crafts with boys, I guess.

Can you spot Eli with his lovey planted in his mouth? He had his first school program, and Matthew and I couldn't wait to see how he would react. He kept telling us he was singing "Happy Birthday" and we didn't really believe he knew what he was talking about. But, as you can see by the party hat on his head, they "sang" Happy Birthday to Jesus for all the parents. Or, really, we all sang it to them, and all the two year olds stared at us or cried! We loved seeing Eli up there on stage, and know this is just the beginning of fun events we'll get to participate in as parents.

Those are Eli's Toy Story big boy underwear he got in his stocking. He didn't want to wear them then, and he still doesn't now. We tried the other day, and had a few accidents and Eli acted tortured every time we put him on the potty, so we aren't forcing it. I figure we'll try again this summer when there are less clothes to deal with and he can run around outside more. We certainly don't want to force the issue, but will definitely be ready when he's ready!

Right after Christmas, we celebrated Matthew's big 30th golden birthday. I had this big secretive weekend planned where his parents came up and I had dinner reservations, movie tickets, concert tickets, and a prime-rib home cooked meal ready. Sunday morning at church I started feeling pretty sick and had a lot of cramping and contractions. I honestly thought I might be going into labor and had to leave the sermon to sit outside in the cold for awhile. As soon as we got home, I laid down and couldn't get out of bed for the life of me. I quickly started getting sick, and realized it wasn't labor, but a stomach bug. Matthew came to check on me around 3 and ask if we should just order a pizza for dinner. I felt so badly about skipping his birthday and meal, I got up and we ran to the grocery store where I had to run to the bathroom a few more times. We bought all the ingredients for Pioneer Woman's Christmas dinner- prime rib, brussel sprouts with cranberries, mashed potatoes, and rolls. As soon as we got home, I was back to bed and the bathroom, and my poor husband and his mama cooked his entire birthday meal. He requested his new favorite cake, a rum cake, recipe courtesy of my grandmother, and even baked it himself! I managed to emerge to sit at the dinner table and give him his gifts, and retreated back to bed after these quick family pics.

Matth enjoyed his gifts- Eli and I got him a new watch, some new slippers, and concert tickets to see the Dirty Guvnah's with some of his high school friends the next night for New Year's Eve.

I realized I got this virus from Eli, whom I thought had been having a stomach reaction to his antibiotics for his sinus infection earlier that week! The next morning, I passed my bug along to my father-in-law, who stayed in bed all day, my husband (happy birthday!) and my sister-in-law. Nice, huh?

We ended up going out to eat before the concert, and shared a light meal as neither one of us felt that great. We loved seeing Matthew's childhood friend's band play, although by the time we rang in the New Year, this sick pregnant mama was worn out! My mother in law helped me disinfect our house the next morning, and they quickly said their goodbyes and left our sick house! :) I'm not sure Matthew will be able to top my 30th here next month- his was such a good one. :)

Moving on...we had one decent snow the other day, and Eli LOVED getting out and playing in it. This was his first actual snow day that he could play in, and he loved stomping in it, eating it, throwing it, and making a snow man with his daddy. It was so nice to get out and play outside for the morning, and come in to hot chocolate and marshmellows- Eli's new favorite treat.

Last, here's a couple pictures from Christmas. Eli loved opening his gifts, of course, and loved opening other's gifts for them! He was so excited about what everyone got, even if it had nothing to do with him. "ooooooh, what's in dere mama?" "woooooow" "that's cooool" and in general, lots of excitement over just the idea of presents! The poor little thing got a really bad sinus infection while we were out of town, and was pretty sick until we could get back to the doctor. He'd wake up in the morning with his eye glued shut from gunk, and tell me "I can't see mama- my eyes not working". He, of course, passed that along to Matthew and I too. If I could keep my lips off of him, I might be able to miss some of these illnesses!

Our big gift to him was this train table and train set. After lots of Facebook advice, we went with the Imaginarium City Central set from Amazon. It's a monster, and very sturdy. Eli loves it, and we play with it every day so far. I think I've mentioned this before, but I'm a firm believer in toy rotation. We pretty much put all his toys away besides this train table and his cars and puzzles. When he seems to get bored with these toys, we'll hide all this away for awhile and pull some old stuff back out! Since he's been sick and we've been quarantined for awhile, I just pulled out a stack of puzzle my mom gifted him from last Christmas and we have spent many hours putting them together!

Last, an update: Matthew has accepted an official position in Nashville and will probably start there in February, but keep working here as well. He'll go back and forth some each week, and Eli and I will keep down the fort here and prepare for a baby in five little weeks! We were originally thinking we might move and have this little boy in Franklin, but have decided for everyone's sanity, we will just stay here until I deliver, and Matth will go back and forth until then. We are still packing up, getting rooms ready, and cleaning. I told Matth it's probably a good thing I don't have a nursery to prepare for, so my nesting instincts can all go towards cleaning our house for moving!

I am feeling pretty good although still having to take nausea meds everyday. I never thought I'd still be sick this far along, but my mom says she was sick for her entire pregnancies, so maybe she gifted that to me! :) It amazes me that I have to take a sleeping pill as part of my nausea meds every night yet I still stay awake with insomnia. I had forgotten about this pregnancy insomnia here at the end, and it's quite frustrating. I remember walking around the house in the wee hours of the morning pregnant with Eli, and I find myself doing the same thing again!

And just when your insomnia ends, a baby is here to wake you up! I think I will definitely be ready in five weeks--this boy is BIG in my belly and is always measuring a little more than 3 weeks ahead. My belly is LARGE and uncomfortable, but I am loving the rolls and kicks all day. I think being pregnant the second time around is almost more fun b/c you know what's coming and how very sweet it's going to be!

Oh, one more thing: Matthew and I can proudly say we have a big almost three year old sleeping through most nights in his own bed!! This has not happened consistently since before he was one! We lay down with him, read him books, and kiss him goodnight after some cuddles and prayers. As long as we leave the light on in the hallway and the door open, he will sleep all by himself! He'll usually come walking in our room in the morning or out to the kitchen if I'm up and proudly tell us "I stayed all night!" We are so proud of him and are loving this change!! I just pray he'll continue to do so when there is a newborn in the house in a few weeks!!

Goodness, that's a lot of information. I should really be better about updating, and then I won't have so much to say!! Hope you all had wonderful holidays and are enjoying the start to this New Year!

Monday, January 7, 2013

We had a great Christmas month celebrating the birth of Jesus, albeit a little crazy with Getting our house ready to sell for whenever we get official news. My new motto is to just keep on living like we are going to be living here with a newborn in two months and fool myself into thinking no differently!

We have our house just about ready to go on the market when we get official word, and I am starting to stockpile a cute stack of teeny tiny boy clothes in the pack n play in our room and we have pulled the boppy and bottles out to wash. This baby will just have a little corner in our room for now, which will suit him just fine I know.

Anyway, on to meal planning. We traveled for November and December with baby showers, births of babies, and then the holidays, so I haven't had to plan many consistent weeks of meals. Then we had three illnessesin a row, and gladly, we are all done for now. We all shared the stomach flu, then a sinus infection, and lastly, for Matthew's 30th bday weekend, Eli and I shared the stomach bug with his whole family! Nice, huh? So, here we are with no illnesses to speak of and a whole month ahead of us of hunkering down and enjoying dreary January days. Here's what we're eating the next two weeks:

Tomato sherry soup with grilled cheeses

Quinoa and turkey sausage stuffed red bell peppers and Caesar salad

Eggplant Parmesan

Chicken tortilla soup

French bread pizzas

Dill salmon with roasted butternut squash and wild rice

Crockpot barbeque with baked potatoes

Spinach and black bean quesadillas

Greek salad with sourdough bread

That should last us about two weeks with leftovers!

I love not having to go to the store except to maybe get some milk and juice!